The increase in major infectious diseases threatening human and animal health has led to new international regulations and laws which prohibit the use of carcasses, animal by-products, food waste and other certain specified risk material (SRM) as defined in various jurisdictions for use as feed for animals, and as feedstock for rendering plants which convert these materials into meat and bone meal (MBM) and other animal nutrient products (fats and blood meal, etc). The onset of the new transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) or prion diseases, such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), chronic wasting disease (CWD), and scrapie, as well as the emerging viral diseases in poultry and other animals, has created serious problems regarding the disposal or recycling of these materials, to assure that they are eliminated from human and animal food chains. Traditional rendering does not create conditions to denature these highly resistant disease agents, and traditional disposal by burial and composting does not destroy the most resistant pathogens (BSE, anthrax, etc.). Furthermore, incineration of large amounts of these carcass, food and other wastes creates secondary environmental pollution and toxic compounds.
There presently exists a challenge to develop a technology that safely eliminates the health and environmental risks created by these infectious or potentially infectious organic materials, without the negative impacts of pollution and odors associated with traditional methods of burial and burning. The ideal solution would be the conversion and refinement of meat, bone, fat and fiber materials derived from waste or condemned animal and plant sources, so that the disease agents are destroyed, without destroying the primary beneficial components, such as nutrient elements of amino acids, fatty acids and minerals. These beneficial components can then be reformed into safe, valuable nutrient products, especially for fertilizers and feedstock nutrients and for anaerobic digesters creating methane biogas for co-generation of electricity and steam. The present invention provides such a solution.